WORLD FRIENDLY

 

WORLD FRIENDLY

James 4:4 You adulterers! Don't you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can't be a friend of God.  NLT

     Wait a minute. Reread this verse. Let this truth sink into your mind. Take a look at yourself. How friendly are you with this world? Before you answer this question, let us consider for a moment what that might mean.

      Friendship means that you go along with the world. You don't have a problem with what is going on around you. You agree with much of what the world promotes (self-gain; self-worth; liberal morality; lack of accountability; mind your own business mindset; the permanency of life as we know it, very little respect for the sanctity of life etc.). You don't get upset when the world entertains you with stuff contrary to holiness. When you are friendly with the world you don't strive to live a life of holiness in the world. You are more concerned about what others think than what God thinks about things.

      What we tend to forget or ignore is that when we become friendly with the world, we become enemies of God. God puts us into the world to change the world, not to let the world change us. When we are in Christ, we are different. We are distinctly more like God than those around us. We value things differently and we live differently. When we live in Christ we are not ashamed of it; rather, we are ashamed of what is going on around us.

       If your aim is to enjoy the things of this world, you cannot be a friend of God. Be careful what you live for. Be careful how you think about things. Be careful how comfortable you become with the world around you. If you aren't, you will become like the world and the Lord will not be pleased with you at all. James goes so far as to call those who are friendly with the world adulterers, a people who do not love the Lord. It is impossible to love the Lord and be okay with how things are in the world.

      Are you too friendly with the world?  Are you living more for what this world offers than for what God offers?  Do you find yourself thinking more about earthly things than you do heavenly things? 

       James calls those who do adulterers and says they cannot be friends of God.  You cannot have it both ways.  Those who straddle the fence are rejected by God.